On Day 29 of the government shutdown, tempers flared as Republican and Democratic leaders traded accusations and blame over the looming lapse in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits that help feed 42 million people, with each side saying that the other is choosing to inflict pain on American families.
But as a November 1 funding deadline nears, it was Republicans who blocked a bill from Democratic Sen. Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico to keep food aid flowing, insisting that the best way Democrats can ensure that SNAP and the nutrition assistance program for women, infants and children can continue is by reopening the government. Luján was seeking to have his bill approved by unanimous consent.
“We’re not going to pick winners and losers,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said. “It’s time to fund everybody who’s experiencing the pain from the shutdown. If Democrats really want to fund SNAP and WIC, I have a bill for them sitting right there at the desk — clean, nonpartisan CR to fund SNAP, WIC and the entire government, and all the many programs and people that Democrats’ SNAP bill completely ignores.”
Getting heated: Thune shouted at Democrats on the Senate floor, claiming that they were playing games with people’s lives and looking for political cover to keep the shutdown going. He argued that Republicans have voted repeatedly for a “clean” funding bill to reopen the government and restore paychecks for federal workers along with SNAP and other benefits.
“We tried to do that 13 times! And you voted ‘no’ 13 times,” Thune shouted across the aisle. “This isn’t a political game. These are real people’s lives that we’re talking about. And you all have just figured out 29 days in that, oh, there might be some consequences, there are people who are running out of money.”
While some Republicans want to ensure that SNAP benefits don’t lapse, others are loath to ease pressure on Democrats to reopen the government. Thune also said that Trump would sit down with Democrats next week to discuss healthcare if they reopen the government.
‘Weaponizing hunger’: Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Republicans bore the blame for the impending lapse in food aid. He added that he was also prepared to vote for a competing bill from Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, which would provide funding just for SNAP. “Ask John Thune why he won’t put it on the floor,” Schumer said. “He knows there’s broad Republican support for it, and he doesn’t put it on the floor. He’s afraid of Trump.”
Schumer also blamed Trump more broadly for the ongoing shutdown. “Right now, we’re facing down two crises at once, a healthcare crisis and a hunger crisis,” the New York Democrat said, “and both are caused by and intensified by one man and one man only: Donald Trump. We’re now three days away from open enrollment, and for the first time in history a president is refusing to fund SNAP during a shutdown.”
Schumer and Democrats argue that contingency funds can and should be used to cover SNAP benefits for the coming month. They note that the Department of Agriculture had said in guidance on its website that it has billions in funding to help keep food aid flowing — and that Trump himself had assured that SNAP benefits would go out. When asked about the deadline recently, the president promised, “everybody is going to be in good shape.”
Right now, it doesn’t look that way. The USDA plan has been removed from the website, and Republicans now insist that they can’t legally use the contingency funds. Democrats angrily pushed back on those claims, saying that every president has used the same pot of funding to provide SNAP benefits and that Trump could defuse the threat of people going hungry with the stroke of a pen. “Trump is weaponizing hunger,” Schumer said. “He’s using kids and parents as pawns. Donald Trump is a vindictive politician and a heartless man.”
Schumer: “And while he’s manufacturing two crises here at home, where’s his focus? Overseas, on a ballroom, on sending $40 billion to Argentina. He has money for Argentina but not for SNAP?”
The bottom line: Some 42 million people are set to lose food aid as the shutdown approaches record length. As the pressure on lawmakers grows, some expressed optimism that bipartisan talks among rank-and-file Senators were finally moving in the right direction. Still, the costs of the shutdown keep rising: The Congressional Budget Office estimated Wednesday that the U.S. economy will see GDP growth temporarily slip 1 to 2 percentage points because of the shutdown — and while most of the drop in GDP will be recovered eventually, between $7 billion and $14 billion will be permanently lost, depending on how long the standoff lasts.